Self-indulgent meditation

Beyond Consolation

The hyperbole begins early. Referring on page 1 to the interview Nuala O’Faoláin gave to Marian Finucane shortly after Nuala was diagnosed with terminal cancer in the spring of 2008, the author describes it as “far more significant” than moon landings or the collapse of a government.

“No single event in Irish culture in my lifetime has quite equalled the impact of the interview,” writes Waters, best known as a columnist with the Irish Times. “No book I can think of, no painting, no movie, no speech, no television programme, no newspaper article, no poem or song, has touched the places this interview touched.”